Are volunteers insured, and what do I owe them on health and safety?

England and Wales: This page sets out the position in full. Scotland: the same position, with no difference in principle — the health and safety Act and the employers’ liability insurance Act both apply directly. Northern Ireland: partly covered — both halves run under Northern Ireland’s own instruments, and the insurance Order’s operative articles were read, but the health and safety Order’s were not read word for word, so that half is stated by structure rather than quoted.

Volunteer insurance: the employers’ liability policy probably excludes them

A charity’s employers’ liability policy probably does not cover a volunteer who is hurt. The compulsory cover is defined around a contract of service. Most charities have never checked their volunteer insurance. Yet the Charity Commission advises treating volunteers like employees for insurance.

This step is for the trustees or manager. It picks up the insurance and health and safety points raised at volunteer induction. The rules below are those of England and Wales; Scotland shares them, and Northern Ireland has its own parallel Orders.

Employers’ liability insurance is compulsory for an employer. The Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 s.1 requires insurance against liability for injury “sustained by his employees”. Section 2(1) then defines employee, verbatim, as “an individual who has entered into or works under a contract of service or apprenticeship with an employer”.

A genuine volunteer has no contract of service. So a genuine volunteer is outside the compulsory regime entirely. And insurers do not read “employees” in an employers’ liability policy as including volunteers.

The result can be stark. A charity with a few staff and many volunteers may hold a valid employers’ liability policy. And it may have no cover at all for a volunteer who is hurt.

The Charity Commission’s advice in CC49 is, verbatim: “For insurance purposes, charities are advised to treat volunteers in the same way as they do their employees and to ensure that they are covered by the usual types of insurance a charity might buy, such as employers’ liability or public liability cover.” That is advice, not a legal requirement. But the gap it points at is real.

What to do: get it in writing. Ask your insurer, in writing:

1. Which policy covers a volunteer injured while volunteering for us?
2. How does the policy define “volunteer”?
3. Are there any age limits — for young volunteers, or older ones?
4. Are the activities our volunteers do within scope?

If the answer is that no policy covers them, ask for an express extension. The written reply is this page’s deliverable.

A person you call a volunteer can, on the facts, be an employee in disguise. Such a person is told when, where and how to work, under something that looks like mutual obligation. Then the compulsory duty bites after all. Deciding whether this is a volunteer role or a job covers that test.

You still owe volunteers a health and safety duty

The opposite mistake is as common: concluding that because volunteers have no employment rights, the charity owes them nothing. It owes them a good deal.

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 s.3(1) says, verbatim:

“It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.”

“Persons not in his employment” includes volunteers. The duty is backed by the criminal law. The Health and Safety Executive enforces it.

It does not depend on any contract. Failing to meet it is an offence under s.33(1)(a), committed by the employer — here, the charity.

Two further duties apply whatever the volunteer’s status. The ordinary duty of care in negligence. And, for premises, the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. A volunteer injured through the charity’s fault can sue.

The charity’s health and safety duties to staff and the public are set out on meeting your health and safety duties. This page covers only what volunteers change.

What volunteers have, and do not have

Both sector extremes are false. Volunteers are not “covered by employment law”, and they are not left with “no protections”. Here is the position in England, Wales and Scotland:

One question is open. The Equality Act 2010’s services provisions, in s.29, apply “for payment or not”. They are a plausible route for a volunteer’s discrimination complaint. But no reported case applying them to a volunteer was found, so this page does not say they apply.

The data protection line follows from how widely the law applies. It was not checked against any guidance from the Information Commissioner on volunteers.

The written health and safety policy counts employees

An employer with 5 or more employees has to have a written statement of its general health and safety policy. The duty comes from HSWA s.2(3). The Employers’ Health and Safety Policy Statements (Exception) Regulations 1975 set the threshold itself. And the duty is to tell employees about the statement, not just to keep one in a file.

The threshold counts employees. A charity below it has no duty to write the policy down. It still has the s.3 duty to volunteers, in full, whatever its size.

A written risk assessment of what volunteers do is the plain way to show you have met that duty. The volunteer-or-job decision tells you who counts as an employee.

Which insurance is required, and which is advisable

In England and Wales the position sorts into three columns. This is the Commission’s own framing in CC49, set against the statutes.

The contract column is the one to be careful with. CC49 confirms that venues and leases may require cover, and may specify a minimum. It gives no figures. Any figure you hear quoted in the sector is broker commentary. Read the actual lease or hire agreement.

The volunteer driver line matters in practice. A volunteer using their own car on charity business needs their own policy to cover that use. Ask them to check.

Choosing and buying the charity’s policies as a whole is covered on buying the insurance you need.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland needs no separate treatment. The 1974 Act and the 1969 insurance Act both extend there. In health and safety, Northern Ireland — not Scotland — is the nation with genuinely separate law.

Northern Ireland runs both halves of this page under its own instruments:

• Insurance. Compulsory employers’ liability insurance comes from the Employer’s Liability (Defective Equipment and Compulsory Insurance) (Northern Ireland) Order 1972. It is a separate Order, not the 1969 Act. It was made to give “comparable” protection. An employer in Northern Ireland must hold the cover it requires, and failing to is an offence.
• Health and safety. The Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 is the parallel to the 1974 Act. When it was made, it was said to be the same apart from how it is run. The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland and the district councils enforce it. The Executive for Northern Ireland is a separate body from HSE.

What is established: the 1972 Order’s articles 2, 5 and 9 were read. A genuine volunteer is outside Northern Ireland’s compulsory cover on the Order’s own text, because article 2 defines an employee by a “contract of service”. The penalty for having no cover is a level 4 fine, the same level as in Great Britain.

What is not established: the working parts of the 1978 Order were not read word for word for this page. Ask your insurer the same four questions either way.

With volunteers recruited, reimbursed and insured, the hub turns to safeguarding, starting with establishing that safeguarding applies to you.

Common mistake: assuming the compulsory employers’ liability policy covers volunteers

The policy is compulsory and “employee” is read loosely. The 1969 Act defines employee as someone under a contract of service or apprenticeship. So a genuine volunteer is outside it. Insurers will not read volunteers in by default. Get it in writing.

Common mistake: concluding the charity owes volunteers nothing on health and safety

Volunteer protections are often discussed as one bundle. HSWA s.3(1) imposes a duty towards “persons not in his employment”. The criminal law backs that duty, and it needs no contract. Negligence and occupiers’ liability apply whatever the person’s status.

Worked example

Wrenfield Village Hall relies on a combined policy bought years ago. Nobody has asked whether it covers volunteers.

Work through the protections table row by row. The health and safety duty applies, under s.3. So a volunteer risk assessment is owed — for setting out tables, using the kitchen, working on a ladder to change a bulb. The compulsory employers’ liability regime does not reach genuine volunteers, so cover for them exists only if the policy says so.

The committee writes to its insurer with the four questions. The reply says the employers’ liability section does not cover volunteers. The public liability section does, but only above a stated age.

The committee checks its helpers against that limit, asks for an extension where one falls short, and files the reply. Its deliverable is the risk assessment and that letter, side by side.